Hydra: An Aegean Paradise for the Most Abstract of Thinkers

'I remember seeing a beautiful woman wearing a marigold silk shirt taking a walk in the middle of a tremendous summer lightning storm. That was my first memory of Helen Marden; she loved the freedom that Hydra gave her.'

It was the mid-1990s, and the artist and curator Dimitrios Antonitsis had just moved to the Saronic island of Hydra—a two-hour ferry ride from his hometown of Athens—with an idea, but needed to pass it by the mayor.

Throughout the summer, when tourists filtered in and school children filtered out, the classrooms of the Old Hydra High School stood empty. Following the stream of writers, painters and poets from the Greek cubist artist Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen and American poet Allen Ginsberg who had pitched up on Hydra, Antonitsis wanted to set up an annual art exhibition there.

At the time, despite all the individuals flocking to Hydra to enjoy the arts and the rhythms of island life, the only other space for contemporary art was Hydra Workshop, a former shipbuilders' yard transformed into an art gallery by British art collector and patron Pauline Karpidas in 1996.

In 1973, the abstract artists Helen and Brice Marden—both in their early 30s—had bought their first home in Hydra.

'I remember them as both very stunning—Brice the quieter of the two,' Antonitsis recalls to Ocula. 'It has always been a party island that has attracted big egos. Instead, Brice and Helen spent their time observing. Observing the loud opinions of those who were perhaps a little bit extravagant.'

Hydra School Projects cemented their friendship. It was the summer of 2001 and Antonitsis invited the couple to participate in Auras and Avatars. Brice hung a series of drawings, while Helen installed smaller, square paintings with pigment hues.

This summer, Hydra School Projects welcomes its 25th exhibition, Huit Femmes, or Eight Women (18 June–8 September 2024), an all-female presentation whose title is drawn from the dark musical comedy written and directed by François Ozon. Seven artists—DJ Avantika, Leonora Carrington, Chiara Clemente, Mary Hatzinikoli, Maro Michalakakos, Valentina Palazzari, Priya Kishore—have taken over three classrooms. The three-channel video installation, The Bigger Picture, by the eighth artist Tschabalala Self, didn't quite fit, so it's on view at the Melina Merkouri Art and Concert Hall, down at the island's port.

A short stroll away, overlooking the crashing waves of the Aegean, is Hydra Slaughterhouse Project, the exhibition space established by Greek-Cypriot collector Dakis Joannou and his influential non-profit art foundation DESTE.

This year, the chosen artist is George Condo with The Mad and the Lonely (18 June–31 October 2024), a showcase of small-scale paintings and sculptures. Since 2009, the foundation has staged 16 exhibitions in The Slaughterhouse, from Maurizio Cattelan (2010) to Kiki Smith (2019), Jeff Koons (2022), and others.

'There must have been over 2,000 people at the Condo opening,' says Antonitsis. He assures me he will be returning with his pack of miniature dachshunds on a quieter weekend to appreciate it properly.

'It's fantastic that this space exists on Hydra,' he continues. 'Every show at The Slaughterhouse addresses the unexpected.'

Asked what it is about the island that people fall in love with, he replies: 'It's its beauty and its esoteric purity. You have to be metaphysically tuned to a very abstract way of thinking to click with the island. This is why Brice and Helen, as abstract painters, could tap into this.'

An amble back along the coast to Hydra port, veering left at the clock tower, winding up through the town, past the National Historical Museum and some handsome tavernas, you'll come to the Old Carpet Factory. It's here Antonitsis and Helen Marden have come together once again, but this time with Antonitsis as collaborating artist.

Curated by Ekaterina Juskowski, The Warp of Time (16 June–8 September 2024) celebrates 100 years since the famed Anatolian carpet expert Nicholas Soutzoglou turned a historical mansion on the island into a carpet factory. For the exhibition, accompanying an antique carpet from the Soutzoglou Collection, Helen Marden's Hydra-inspired watercolours have been transformed into three handmade carpets that hang upon the lime-washed stone walls.

Foregrounding the lofty windows that frame the sweeping sea-view terraces are Antonitsis' ongoing series of 'loom abacuses'—square wooden frames woven with wool and snakeskin found on walks along the island's craggy coastline.

'It is on these walks up towards the monastery, or along the coast, that I feel Brice's presence,' he says. 'He was a very laconic person with a very strong aesthetic, an aesthetic which was in love with Hydra's landscape and one that has deeply influenced my way of seeing.'

In May 2022, Brice Marden and Greek Antiquity opened at the Museum of Cycladic Art—Brice's first show in Athens which would turn out to be his last before his death the following August.

The exhibition was a collaboration between the two—Antonitsis as curator, Brice creator—and featured 44 paintings, drawings and notebooks alongside antiquities from the museum's permanent collection. Ahead of the opening, the old friends met up in the Greek capital for dinner and a walk around their show.

The centrepiece was Hydra View (2011–12), Brice's diptych that once sat in the main salon of Pauline Karpidas's Boudouris Mansion, the house she bought a few years after setting up Hydra Workshop. The outlook from the house inspired the translucent layers of blue oil paint that ripple through Brice's masterpiece. Premiering at the show was 'Hydra Water' (1975), a series of drawings capturing a rare moment in which Brice worked directly from nature.

However, it was a group of drawings on view from Brice's series 'Souvenir de Grèce' (1974–96) that was on Antonitsis' mind: a number of the sketches had been languishing in studio drawers since the early 1970s, only to be signed and dated 20 years later. As Brice said to Antonitsis: 'There's no deadline in creating an artwork. Time doesn't really matter, especially when you're on Hydra. That's the freedom that this island gives you.' —[O]